ANKARA - International Monetary Fund (IMF) Senior Resident Representative in Turkey Odd Per Brekk said on Tuesday that the government had an excellent opportunity to turn the recent positive developments into a lasting improvement in the economy.
Releasing a statement, Brekk said that an IMF mission headed by Turkey Desk Chief Juha Kahkonen would start discussions for the fifth review under Turkey's IMF-supported program in Ankara on May 21.
Turkey's stand-by arrangement with the IMF covers the 2002-2004 period. Of the total Fund financing of some 17 billion U.S. dollars, about 3 billion U.S. dollars remain to be disbursed. Completion of the fifth review would trigger a disbursement of about 500 million U.S. dollars.
Stressing that the increased momentum in economic reform had helped to improve financial market sentiment, Brekk said that the Turkish authorities had laid out an ambitious economic stabilization and reform agenda for 2003, and had taken important initial steps in implementing this agenda.
''These efforts were instrumental in allowing the fourth program review to be completed on April 18. Together with the end of hostilities in Iraq and a positive global market sentiment toward emerging market economies, this has helped interest rates to fall while the Turkish lira has strengthened. The more benign environment also means that the government's macroeconomic targets of 5 percent growth and 20 percent inflation in 2003 remain attainable,'' he said.
Noting that the mission's discussions would focus on steadfast implementation of the government's commitments so that the favorable momentum could be maintained, Brekk said that the government had an excellent opportunity to turn the recent positive developments into a lasting improvement in the economy.
''To this end, it needs to create a strong and consistent record of implementing this program. Meeting the conditions for completing the fifth review, which include a number of quantitative targets and structural measures spelt out in the government's Letter of Intent for the fourth review, will be an important step in this regard,'' he said. Meanwhile, Brekk added that this would be Kahkonen's last mission to Turkey, after which Reza Moghadam would take over as new mission chief.
(MS-AÖ) 20.05.2003